Germany to add the Netherlands to high-risk Covid-19 list – latest updates

Sunday, April 4

Germany to add Dutch to high-risk list

Germany will place the Netherlands among countries classified as high-risk zones due to elevated numbers of Covid-19 cases, Berlin's infectious disease agency has announced.

Beginning Tuesday at midnight, travellers from the Netherlands will have to present a negative virus test to enter Germany, according to the Robert Koch Institute.

A quarantine period of 10 days must also be observed with the possibility of halting it after five days on presentation of a negative test.

There will be exceptions for people commuting between the neighbouring countries for work.

US says 165 mln doses of vaccine administered so far

The United States has administered more than 165 million doses of Covid-19 vaccines in the country and distributed nearly 208 million, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said.

That is up from the 161,688,422 vaccine doses the CDC said had gone into arms by Saturday out of 207,866,645 doses delivered.

The agency said 106,214,924 people had received at least one vaccine dose, while 61,416,536 people have been fully vaccinated.

Peru registers highest daily death toll

Peru has reported a record daily 294 coronavirus deaths, the health ministry said, just over a week before millions of people are due to go out and vote for a new president and congress.

Unlike neighbour Chile, which had also been due to hold elections next Sunday but postponed them in the face of the health crisis, Peru's president has decided to push ahead.

The latest 24-hour toll exceeded the South American country's previous record of 277 deaths in a day last August and brought total fatalities to 52,625, with more than 1.5 million recorded infections, ministry data showed.

More than 5,600 new daily cases were reported as the continent battles a surge in infections fuelled by new virus variants believed to be more contagious.

Turkey reports almost 42,000 new cases

Turkey has reported almost 42,000 new coronavirus cases, according to the Health Ministry.

A total of 41,998 cases, including 1,508 symptomatic patients, were registered across the country over the past 24 hours, bringing the total number of cases over 3.48 million.

The nationwide death toll reached 32,263 with 185 more daily fatalities.

Italy reports 326 deaths 

Italy has reported 326 virus-related deaths against 376 the day before, the health ministry said, while the daily tally of new infections decreased to 18,025 from 21,261.

Italy has registered 111,030 deaths linked to Covid-19 since its outbreak emerged in February last year, the second-highest toll in Europe after Britain and the seventh-highest in the world.

The country has reported 3.6 million cases to date.

Restrictions imposed in India's Maharashtra

India's richest state, Maharashtra, announced stringent Covid-19 restrictions from Monday, after a rapid rise in infections now accounting for more than half the daily new cases in India.

The state, which includes the financial capital Mumbai, will shut down malls, cinemas, bars, restaurants and places of worship from Monday evening.

Authorities will also impose a complete lockdown on weekends, Nawab Malik, a minister in the state government, told reporters after a cabinet meeting.

Malik said the government will also impose a night curfew across the state from 8 pm (1430GMT) to 7 am (0130GMT) from Monday, allowing only essential services to operate during those hours.

Portugal extends restrictions on Spanish border 

Portugal has extended restrictions on travel via land and sea to Spain that had been due to end this weekend until April 15 as it works to contain the spread of Covid-19.

The two countries imposed the restrictions on January 28.

The interior ministry said the restrictions would remain in place for a further 11 days, adding that the measures did not prevent citizens or residents of Portugal from entering the country.

Vehicles transporting goods, emergency vehicles and seasonal border workers are also exempt.

Nationals from Britain, Brazil and South Africa – where more contagious coronavirus variants were first – or any country with an infection rate above 500 cases per 100,000 people must quarantine for 14 days if they have entered via the land border, the statement said.

Libya takes delivery of first vaccines

Libya's interim prime minister has announced the arrival of the first batch of vaccines against Covid-19, as the war-torn country's crumbling health system struggles against a mounting caseload.

"Thanks to God, we have managed to import the first batch of coronavirus vaccines," Abdul Hamid Dbeibah tweeted, saying further doses were on the way.

"I call on the Libyan people to sign up via the vaccine portal," he added, referring to a website launched by the North African country's authorities in early March ahead of the first deliveries.

The health ministry said in a statement that just over 100,000 doses of the Russian Sputnik V jab had arrived in Tripoli.

Slovakia's death toll passes 10,000

Slovakia said the death toll has passed 10,000 in the central European country of 5.5 million.

Slovakia has been hit hard by the latest wave of the pandemic although the infection rate and hospitalisations from the virus have eased somewhat in the past few weeks.

It reported 77 new deaths, bringing the total to 10,025 since the pandemic first struck in March 2020.

Slovakia, like others in central Europe, had got through the initial outbreak a year ago with relatively few infections and deaths, but has seen a surge this year that has strained hospitals and led to tighter restrictions on daily life.

In the past seven days, Slovakia has posted the world's seventh highest per-capita death rate, according to online publication Our World in Data. Neighbouring Hungary leads the list while the Czech Republic and Poland also are in the highest 10 countries on the list.

Overall in the past year, Slovakia's rate of 1,822 deaths per 1 million people is the 12th worst in the world, according to Our World in Data.

Russia reports 8,817 new cases, 357 deaths

Russia reported 8,817 new cases, including 1,901 in Moscow, pushing the number of infections registered in the country to 4,580,894 since the pandemic began last year.

The government coronavirus task force said 357 people had died from in the last 24 hours, taking Russia's overall death toll to 100,374.

Russia's Rosstat statistics service, which is keeping a separate tally, has reported a much higher toll. It said on Friday it had recorded over 225,000 deaths related to since the start of the pandemic.

Infections in youth spike in Turkey

Turkey's Health Minister Fahrettin Koca said the rate at which young people are being infected is increasing. Turkey on Saturday recorded its highest ever daily total since the pandemic began with 44,756 cases.

Koca affirmed that his department will work hard to protect the youth. He added that the ratio of cases in those aged 65 and over had dropped from 14.39 percent to 11.3 percent over the past month.

Paris medics fear worst of Covid wave still to come

In the Covid-19 intensive care unit of the Antony Private Hospital south of Paris, no bed stays free for long and medics wonder when their workload will finally peak.

As one recovered elderly patient is being wheeled out of the ward, smiling weakly, boss Jean-Pierre Deyme is on the phone arranging the next arrival and calling out instructions to staff.

Louisa Pinto, a nurse of nearly 20 years' experience, gestures to the vacated room where a cleaner is already at work, scrubbing down the mattress for the next arrival.

"The bed won't even have time to cool down," she says as the patient monitoring system beeps constantly in the background.

For now, everything is stable in the 20-odd beds around her where Covid-19 victims lie inanimate, in a silent battle with the virus.

Paris is going through a third wave of the pandemic which risks putting even more strain on saturated hospitals than the first wave in March and April last year.

Australia enjoys Easter with no new local cases

Australians are celebrating Easter Sunday in a relatively unrestricted manner as the country reported no new locally acquired cases.

Queensland, the epicentre of a recent, small community outbreak, has had only one infection in the past three days. The state has the tightest restrictions on public gatherings.

Elsewhere, Australians flocked to the beaches, capitalising on the warm weather in many parts of the country, or gathered with families, in a stark contrast to last year's Easter when a nationwide lockdown kept people confined to their homes.

While many countries have imposed fresh lockdowns or curtailed services for the major Christian holiday trying to keep the third wave of coronavirus from further spreading, Australia's churches were open and many were attending services during the four-day weekend.

Germany's confirmed cases rise by 12,196 - RKI

The number of confirmed cases in Germany increased by 12,196 to 2,885,386, data from the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) for infectious diseases showed. 

The reported death toll rose by 68 to 76,963, the tally showed. 

Navajo Nation reports 4 new virus deaths

The Navajo Nation on Saturday reported 18 additional confirmed cases and four more deaths.

The pandemic totals on the tribe’s reservation that includes parts of Arizona, New Mexico and Utah increased to 30,164 cases and 1,257 deaths.

Tribal President Jonathan Nez encouraged people to celebrate the Easter weekend safely while following  protocols. Nez said those including staying home as much as possible, wearing a mask, practicing social distancing, avoiding large in-person gatherings, and washing hands often.

Seoul church limits Easter service as virus spikes

A church in Seoul held a reduced Easter service amid a spike of coronavirus infections across South Korea.

Over 2,000 people attended Easter service at the Yoido Full Gospel Church, which is about 20 percent of the normal capacity.

Only church members were allowed to attend mass due to the restrictions imposed to curb the spread of the virus.

South Korea’s daily increase in coronavirus infections exceeded 500 for the fifth straight day, the government said.

It was a pace unseen since January, as experts raise concerns about another viral surge amid a slow rollout in vaccines.

Brazil registers 1,987 new deaths

Brazil has registered 1,987 new Covid-19 deaths, the health ministry said. 

The Latin American nation is reeling from the worst of the pandemic yet and has the highest daily death tolls in the world.

Deaths now total 330,193. Cases rose by 43,515, the ministry said, and now total 12,953,597. 

Mainland China reports 21 cases vs 26 a day earlier

Mainland China has reported 21 new Covid-19 cases for April 3, down from 26 cases a day earlier, the country's national health authority said.

In a statement, the National Health Commission said 10 of the new confirmed cases were local transmissions in the southwestern Yunnan province.

The other 11 cases were imported infections, it said.

The number of new asymptomatic cases, which China does not classify as confirmed cases, fell to 18 from 24 on April 3.

Total confirmed Covid-19 cases in Mainland China now stand at 90,273, with the death toll unchanged at 4,636, according to the statement.

Canada surpasses 1 million cases

Canada has crossed the threshold of one million coronavirus cases as the country faces a third wave of infections, forcing several provinces to tighten restrictions in recent days.

With 2,000 new cases of Covid-19 announced in British Columbia on Saturday evening, Canada topped one million cases since the start of the pandemic, according to figures reported by Canadian broadcasters.

Just over 23,000 people have died.

Canada is grappling with a third wave of cases amid the rapid spread of variants, which are more contagious.

Argentine president tests positive for Covid-19

Argentina's President Alberto Fernandez, who has been vaccinated against Covid-19, has announced that he had tested positive for the coronavirus.

"At the end of today, after presenting a fever of 37.3 (99 Fahrenheit) and a slight headache, I performed an antigen test, which was positive," he tweeted.

A PCR test later confirmed the diagnosis.

Fernandez was inoculated with the Russian Sputnik V vaccine and had his second shot on February 11, sources in the presidency told AFP.

Argentina is facing a second wave of the coronavirus with a sustained rise in cases.

The South American country of 45 million inhabitants has recorded more than 2.3 million infections and over 56,000 deaths from Covid-19.

More than 4.1 million people there had been vaccinated as of Saturday.

Bangladesh set for 7-day lockdown

Bangladesh will impose a one-week nationwide lockdown starting Monday to stem the spread of Covid-19, said government officials.

Underlining the rapid spread of the virus in the last couple of days, Road Transport and Bridges Minister Obaidul Quader said on Saturday that the lockdown is a preliminary step and might be extended.

Later in the day, the authorities announced that all domestic flights, as well as rail and waterway services would be suspended during the one-week lockdown.

International flights, however, as per the government rule during the pandemic, will run as previously scheduled, and the cargo trains and ships will operate.

In the last 24 hours, the South Asian country saw 58 deaths and 5,683 new cases, bringing the death toll to 9,213 while over 630,000 people have been infected.

Fighting off a third wave, the country has seen a rapid rise of Covid-19 deaths and infections over the last week, with an average death tally of nearly 50 per day and around 6,000 daily infections.

Bucharest protest against virus control measures

Protesters opposing measures to curb the spread of Covid-19 have protested in Romania's capital Bucharest, as the country experienced a seventh straight day of demonstrations since the restrictions came into effect last Sunday.

The new regulations include an 8 pm curfew and, in hard-hit areas, shorter shopping hours.

The Eastern European country is currently battling a third wave of Covid-19 infections and has recorded its highest numbers of patients in intensive care units over the last week.

According to John Hopkins university Romania has 964,726 confirmed cases of Covid-19 with 23,819 deaths.